Trip to Norway

The first day, I met with the other 4 students and with the teacher that would go with us to Norway in the train station. I was very happy because it was my first exchange. We went to Barcelona’s airport where we took a plane to Oslo. There I was extremely surprise because of the price. Everything was so expensive. When we arrived to Tromso’s airport we had our bags very quickly. There, some Norwegian students were waiting for us with the Bulgarian and the Irish people. On the way home we started talking with some Norwegian students. The journey was very long, but finally we arrived. The bus left us in front of the school. I had just left the bus when I realized there was really cold. When I arrived home I had to remove my shoes, thing that I wasn’t used to do.

The real trip began on 5^th. I got up at about 7:15am and I had breakfast. It was the first time of my life I saw such a beautiful landscape. When I arrived at school I went to a maths class with Ida (the Norwegian student who I live with) I noticed a huge difference in the class, compared to Spain everyone seemed relaxed and every student had a laptop to work with. Another difference to our school was that they had break time between every class. After the maths class I went to a Sami lesson where I learned some words and the numbers. Then all the students went to the auditorium to give our presentation and listen to the others. We, the Spanish team, were the first. We all were very nervous but everything went right. After the presentations some of the Comenius students and some other Norwegian students went to a café in the town where we got to know each other. On the way to the café I realized it was midday and it was getting dark.

On Saturday the 6^th of November we all went to a Sami handcraft shop. It was interesting, we were allowed into the workshop to see all the things. After seeing the shop I went to see a reindeer. It was really nice and I touched it. Going home the host mother showed me the town. It was really cold and when I was outside to take photos my hands were paralyzed. At 6:00pm I went to the school for a party. There I ate reindeer for the first time, it was surprisingly good. A reporter interviewed one student of each country and then our teacher coordinator and the head of studies of the Norwegian school were interviewed too. Afterwards we had a few games of football between all the students and the Nicaraguan students who were on exchange to Norway.

The next day I met everyone at 11 am. We went to a Sami village. First we saw a video about a Sami cultural festival. We had lunch there. It was reindeer again, quite good. We had a Sami language class with all the students and teachers, where we learned some basic words. Then we came back home where my host mother have prepared a typical Norwegian dish. It was reindeer another time, and like always it was really good. At about eight nearly all the student came to Ida’s house to watch a movie, "Alice in Wonderland". All in all it was a good night and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. That night I had to pack the baggage and Ida gave us a present.

It was 8^th of November and I was extremely sad because that would be my last day in Storslett. When I went to the school in the morning I brought my luggage with me. I went to a Sami lesson again but this time I played a game and I enjoyed it a lot. Then it was when I realized that there the teachers are closer to the students. After this we had our last lunch in the school. Then we took pictures with everyone and said goodbye. We were with the Irish people going to Tromso. On the way to Tromso it was snowing very hard and the road looked completely white. When we arrived we got to the hotel, we left our bags in our rooms and left to go to an aquarium where we watched a short video about the Norwegian wildlife. Then we missed ourselves with the Irish people playing with the snow having fun. After that we had dinner and returned to the hotel for the rest of the night. We played cards for most of the night. At midnight we said goodbye to the Irish students because they would be leaving latter than us the next morning and we went to pack all the things and finally to sleep.

The last day we got up really early and we went to the airport. There we took a plane to Oslo where we had to wait 4 hours to take the second flight to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt we had to run to arrive to the right gate and very quickly we boarded. During the flight we were talking with some students from Valencia who were coming back from Poland. They were doing a Comenius project too. Finally we arrived in Barcelona’s airport and I arrived home.

I enjoyed a lot those days in Norway. I liked it so much and of course all the people I’ve met. I’ve seen all the differences between Norway and Spain like the culture and the lifestyle. If I could I would repeat it.

by: Mireia Castellà